Maternal Depression Affects Child's Brain Development

Share

18% of women experience depression some time during pregnancy, and both peri-natal and post-partum depression have been associated with negative outcomes in children.

Maternal Depression Affects Child's Brain Development

Advertisement

Depressive symptoms in women during and after pregnancy are linked to reduced thickness of the cortex - the outer layer of the brain responsible for complex thought and behavior - in preschool-age kids, says a new study.

‘Pregnant women with depressive symptoms tended to have children with thinner frontal and temporal areas, cortical regions implicated in tasks involving inhibition and attention control.’

Advertisement

"Our findings underscore the importance of monitoring and supporting mental health in mothers not just in the post-partum period, but also during pregnancy," said lead researcher Catherine Lebel of the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada.

The findings, published in the journal Biological Psychiatry, suggest that a mother's mood may affect her child's brain development at critical stages in life.

For the study, the researchers screened 52 women for depressive symptoms during each trimester of pregnancy and a few months after the child was born.

The women ranged in the presence of symptoms, some with no or few symptoms, and some meeting the screening criteria for depression.

When the children reached about 2.5 to five years of age, the researchers used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to measure their brain structure.

Women with higher depressive symptoms tended to have children with thinner frontal and temporal areas, cortical regions implicated in tasks involving inhibition and attention control.

The researchers also found an association between depressive symptoms and abnormal white matter in the frontal area, the fiber tracts connecting the region to other areas in the brain.

These associations were only found when symptoms occurred during the second trimester and post-partum, suggesting these periods are particularly critical times for child brain development.

Abnormalities in brain structure during critical periods in development have often been associated with negative outcomes, such as learning disabilities and behavioral disorders, the researchers said.

Your comments are automatically posted once they are submitted. All comments are however constantly reviewed for spam and irrelevant material (such as product or personal advertisements, email addresses, telephone numbers and website address). Such insertions do not conform to our policy and 'Terms of Use' and are either deleted or edited and republished.Please keep your comments brief and relevant.This section may also have questions seeking help. If you have the information you are welcome to respond, but please ensure that the information so provided is genuine and not misleading.

Disclaimer - All information and content on this site are for information and educational purposes only. The information should not be used for either diagnosis or treatment or both for any health related problem or disease. Always seek the advice of a qualified physician for medical diagnosis and treatment.Full Disclaimer